My final commits have been made at work, emails sent, auto responders turned on, freelancer found to cover, and I am officially off on holiday for the next three weeks. I am boarding the first flight out of London (I realise I think of myself as living in London rather than England these days!), off to a small town in rural Spain, loaded with climbing gear and a laptop. Bliss!
I considered leaving this laptop behind, God knows I spend enough hours starring at a screen during my working life, but realised that coding is something I enjoy too much to not do on holiday. I find my side projects hugely relaxing. No client consultations, meetings, deadlines; just doing as I please, when I please, how I please.
This mindset surely exists in all creative fields. The graphic designer who after ‘artworking’ brochures all day, feels the need to design some inspiring image in the evenings. The wedding photographer who can still be seen clutching a camera when walking the dogs on weekend. The ultimate dream for any architect is to build his own home, to his own spec following his own principles, rather than his clients. We are passionate about our work, but the client relationship affects our craft. Our professional work pays our bills, our personal work feeds our soul.
So I sit here, with an oversized coffee, a fuzzy head, waiting on a 4 hour delayed plane (of course the worst storms in years would hit South England the night before I fly!), thinking about what I can get done whilst away. My little feedback tab idea has been brewing for a while, and seems like the perfect little website to build.
I am going to blog about my build process of this side project.
